Orbán cabinet urges EU to open more accession chapters with Serbia this year
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Hungary urges the European Union to open in December all accession chapters that are technically ready, Péter Szijjártó, Hungary’s foreign minister, said on Thursday in Belgrade after talks with Serbia’s minister for European integration.
Szijjártó said Jadranka Joksimovic told him that Belgrade is ready to open seven chapters, and Budapest urges all seven chapters to be opened at the December intergovernmental conference.
He said this would mean that by the end of the year, 21 chapters will have been opened with Serbia. Since the Romanian EU presidency follows the Austrian one, and Romania is in favour of enlargement,
Budapest hopes that the remaining 14 chapters can also be opened in the following six months.
He also expressed hope that the Romanian presidency would return to the practice of opening two chapters instead of one during the six months.
Szijjártó underlined
Hungary’s unwavering support for Serbia’s European integration process and its concomitant economic and security reasons. Its support is also an expression of solidarity, he added.
The economic reason is that the growth rate of the Western Balkans exceeds that of the EU and in order to increase the latter, it is necessary to integrate faster-growing regions, he said.
The security reason is that Serbia is viewed as a key player for stability in the Western Balkans, Szijjártó said.
“A stable and fast-developing Serbia means a stable and fast-developing Western Balkans,” he added.
